What's in a name?

So much of our efforts as researchers depends on being able to correctly identify our subjects by their names, and we accept the job of reconciling misspellings and other variations as just part of our job. But what happens when an ancestor has made the decision to legally change his name to something completely – and sometimes arbitrarily – different? How do we manage these eventualities in our research databases in such a way that we satisfy the factual requirements of documenting the bloodline and also respect the wishes of living relatives?

I recently received an email from a woman who wrote to inquire about the family of Romuald SCHUKALSKE, one of the families connected by marriage with my BREEHLs. In our research database, we have them documented something like this:

Romuald SCHUKALSKE
m. Augusta WENZEL
|
+- Frank Clemens SCHUKALSKE (changed name in 1944 to Frank SCHILLER)
|  m. Mary BREEHL
|  |
|  +- William SCHILLER
|
+- Edward J. SCHUKALSKE (changed name in 1944 to Edward J. SCHILLER)
|  m. Anna BREEHL
|  |
|  +- Edward R. SCHILLER
|  +- Helen A. SCHILLER
|  +- Lawrence SCHILLER
|  |
|  m. Laura BREEHL
|  |
|  +- Paul F. SCHILLER
|  +- George A. SCHILLER
|  +- Joseph G. SCHILLER
|
+- Margaret E. SCHUKALSKE
m. Julius Alcide BENOIT
|
+- Marguerite BENOIT

So what's the problem? According to the email, the man we have listed as Edward R. SCHILLER was always known to his descendants as SCHUKALSKE. When I thought about it, this made sense. His father (Edward J.) changed his name in 1944, by which time Edward R. was an adult. He wasn't born SCHILLER and, one would suppose, wouldn't have bothered to also go to the trouble of a legal name change.

On the other hand, much of our knowledge of the SCHUKALSKE/SCHILLER descendancy comes from interviews and handwritten notes provided by George Schiller, one of Edward J.'s sons from his marriage to Laura BREEHL. George and his siblings were also born after their father's name change, but they did take the SCHILLER name and their headstones bear this out.

It appears that Edward J.'s children with Anna BREEHL remained SCHUKALSKE, and those with Laura BREEHL took the SCHILLER name. In fact, one of the sons from the second family went off to WW II a SCHUKALSKE, was killed, and was returned to the U.S. a SCHILLER.